The Memphis Grizzlies are playing basketball without their star player. Generally speaking, things have been going surprisingly well with the Grizz winning five of their six games without him. The only loss came to a Mavericks team that just saw the return of Luka Doncic.
In fact, in the first five games of Ja Morant’s absence, the Grizzlies were arguably playing their best basketball of all time. In that stretch, Memphis won by a league-record 73-point margin against the Oklahoma City Thunder and did not trail in a single game.
But all good things come to an end, which is exactly what happened against the Doncic-led Mavs on Wednesday night. In that game, the Grizzlies’ five-game winning streak came to an end with Memphis taking an eight-point home loss.
How much longer will the Memphis Grizzlies have to play without their superstar in Ja Morant?
The answer to this question isn’t simple — it never is with the Grizzlies. That said, some news on Wednesday complicated Morant’s absence further.
That news was in regards to Ja Morant being added to the league’s health and safety protocols, which points to Covid. Whether or not Morant actually has Covid is unclear, but sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Morant is fully vaccinated with a booster shot.
So what does this tell us about his return?
It seems unlikely that this will have much of an impact. For starters, Morant has been given no update on his knee injury — if anything, this new situation will keep the Grizzlies from forcing him back onto the court. That said, it doesn’t seem like much more time will be tacked on.
Morant could miss up to ten days. That said, if he tests negative twice in a row (24 hours apart), he can return to the team. As he is fully vaccinated, it’s entirely unlikely that he’ll miss all ten days and it’s still unclear whether he actually has Covid or was in contact with somebody who has it.
In short, to answer the question posed in the title of this article — nobody knows. Even Morant and team doctors probably don’t know. Grizz fans will have to exercise patience for the next week or so.